Virginia Martin

Not So Fast: JeffCo Tables Support for Innovation Depot

Commissioner Steve Ammons expressed disappointment after the Jefferson County Commission tabled a proposal of more than $1.6 million to support Innovation Depot. The commission voted 3-2 Thursday to table the matter until May 25, with Ammons and Commissioner Sheila Tyson voting no. “I am disappointed because it puts it off that much longer,” said Ammons, the chair of the commission’s economic development committee. “Innovation Depot is working on a new strategy and their ability to get at it sooner than later is important." Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

BSC Board Votes to Keep the College Open

The board of trustees of Birmingham-Southern College voted unanimously Wednesday evening to keep the college open. Late last year, college officials reported that the private liberal arts college could close as early as this spring due to old accounting errors, a drained endowment and years of financial stress. The college has asked government officials for bridge funding, with limited success. Its $200 million fundraising campaign so far has raised nearly $46 million from private donors. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

County Considering $1.6M to Support Innovation Depot, Other Econ Dev Projects

Following a presentation from Innovation Depot, the Jefferson County Commission Tuesday moved to its Thursday meeting agenda a package of more than $1.6 million supporting the business accelerator. Brooke Gillis, CEO of Innovation Depot, told commissioners about the depot’s aim to nurture the efforts of entrepreneurs so that their businesses can grow beyond the walls of the business center in downtown Birmingham. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Birmingham Council Moves Meetings for the Summer

Birmingham City Council meetings are scheduled for a temporary venue change this summer. From May 2 through Aug. 1, the council’s regular Tuesday morning meetings will move from the third floor of City Hall to the second floor of the Boutwell Auditorium. The move will allow for renovations to be made to council chambers.

by Sam Prickett

JVTF Gets $805K From City to Teach Students About Farming and Food

The Birmingham City Council has allocated $805,000 toward increasing the Jones Valley Teaching Farm’s presence in Birmingham City Schools. The money will go toward the nonprofit's wide-reaching Good School Food educational program, which is intended to foster skills in and appreciation for farming and the culinary arts in BCS students. The new funding will expand the JVTF’s capacity to host field trips and weeklong camps and will expand JVTF’s internship and apprenticeship programs. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

After Botched Executions, Alabama Will Try Lethal Injection Again

Alabama paused executions for three months after the state failed to execute two men and took more than three hours to kill another man. Now, after an internal review and a rule change, prison officials will resume the procedure. Read more.

by Mary Scott Hodgin, WBHM

U.S. Judge Rules Insurers Don’t Have to Cover Many Free Preventive Health Services

WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies may no longer need to cover a wide swath of preventive health care services that were required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, under a federal judge’s ruling issued Thursday in Texas. The decision could affect millions of Americans’ access to no-cost preventive health care — including pregnancy-related care, cancer screenings, HIV prevention pharmaceuticals and more — that a federal agency given new powers under Obamacare required health insurance companies to cover. Read more.

by Jennifer Shutt, Alabama Reflector

An Inside Look at an AP African American Studies Class

The steading rhythm of djembe drums envelops Emmitt Glynn’s classroom in Louisiana’s Baton Rouge Magnet High School. Today’s Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies lesson is on the evolution of African American music, so Glynn has brought in a group of music students to demonstrate how beats from the African continent made their way into

by Kyra Miles, WBHM

Lead keeps poisoning children. It doesn’t have to.

SANTA ANA, California — The news came as a shock: Lead, lurking somewhere in Nalleli Garrido's home, was poisoning her 1-year-old son. His pediatrician instructed her to clean all the toys of her toddler, Ruben, keep the home dust-free and prevent him from playing in the bare soil outside her rented bungalow in Santa Ana’s Logan neighborhood. She did all she could. But the dust kept sneaking in. No one offered an alternative. The only solution she and her husband could find was to get out. In 2019, after two years of constant worry, they moved north to the city of Buena Park, buying a home with a grassy yard — not an exposed patch of soil like her Santa Ana front yard, where the toxic metal could be found in concentrations as high as 148 parts of lead per million parts of soil. California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment considers 80 parts per million and above dangerous for children. “I was terrified to take my son out,” said Garrido, a psychiatric nurse. “Even walking through the yard, I would tell my kids to hold their breath. ‘Don’t breathe that in, don’t breathe in the dust.’” Read more.

by Yvette Cabrera, Center for Public Integrity

In Brandon Miller Case, Blaming the Media Is Way Too Simple

The University of Alabama men’s basketball program ended its season Friday having squandered its national championship chances and its good reputation. In the same process, the reputation of the news media took a thorough pounding, as well. Many UA fans blamed the press — mostly the press outside of Tuscaloosa — for sparking national hatred of the program that showed itself in arena chants and on social media, culminating with death threats and armed security for star player Brandon Miller, who was part of the chain of events that led to the shooting death of a young mother. I got to wondering if the blame was valid. Read more.

by Tom Arenberg